Technical institutes to get student grievance redressal bodies

The earlier set of rules, issued in 2012, had only provided for the appointment of a varsity-level ombudsman.

Students at technical institutes across the country may now be able to get their complaints regarding irregularities in admission, excess fees, malpractices in the evaluation and other such issues resolved at their institutes itself.

A new set of proposed rules about grievance redressal introduced by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) requires all technical institutes — engineering, management, pharmacy, architecture, computer applications and hotel management — to set up a student grievance redressal committee. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

A new set of proposed rules about grievance redressal introduced by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) requires all technical institutes — engineering, management, pharmacy, architecture, computer applications and hotel management — to set up a student grievance redressal committee to resolve students’ complaints. The grievances can be filed online. If the students are not satisfied with the committee’s verdict, they can appeal to an ombudsman, who is proposed to be appointed at every university and technical education board.

The earlier set of rules, issued in 2012, had only provided for the appointment of a varsity-level ombudsman. The students were required to submit their complaints to a registry in the institute, while all the matters were to be resolved by the ombudsman.

“There was no provision for portal-based grievance redressal in the earlier rules, leaving the scope for colleges to suppress the complaints. Students will now be able to resolve their complaints at the institute level. There will be no scope for any discrepancies as records of complaints will be made publicly available on the portal,” said an AICTE official. The draft also requires institutes to publish an online prospectus about its courses, intake, fees and eligibility criteria 60 days before the admission process ends, failing which they will risk losing their approval and face other action by the regulator.